Sunday, September 27, 2009

Gambling and a morally lost government

I've railed about the wild gambling spree launched by the Liberals, most recently here. What's most troubling is that Gordon Campbell has said expanded gambling is wrong. Kevin Krueger said it was immoral. People would die and the blood would be on government's hands, he warned.And they did it anyway. Michael Smyth reports on what a scam it is in a column today.And Lindsay Kines reports in the Times Colonist that at the same time B.C. is about to become the first jurisdiction in North America to allow legal Internet casino gambling, the government has cut a program to reduce problem gambling and help addicts by one-third. The $4.6 million equals about 40 cents for every $100 the government makes from gambling.

4 comments:

DPL
said...

Gordon needs the money for the big circus. The problem gamblers will be able to blow their bank account, lose their car, and the place they live and none of it would bother the folks you quote in this article one little bit.Reaside did a good cartoon not long ago. an old fellow with a walker is being told by a guy who looks a lot like Coleman The chubby guy said" I bet you twenty bucks your hip surgury will be prosponed again."

When I complain about our government my more charitable friends often quote Hanlon's Razor: "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence", but surely this is malice, pure and simple.

It's just that poor Rich is incompetent - he cannot touch a file without it not turning to dust.

When the BC Liberals first came to power in 2001, there were nary a peep from the corporate media as the long knives came out to cut cut cut and cut again. Today it seems as if there is not enough Inc. ink in the world to drown those pitiful pols in.

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Here's another story that needs to find its legs: Remember during the run up to the May 12 election how there was no mention of the exponential growth of the welfare roles? Remember how it was later revealed that the information was politically suppressed until the polls were shuttered?

Derek Spalding, of the Nanaimo Daily News, reports: "VIHA holds back report to 'temper' its damage". This was swiftly followed by a poorly put together article by the TC's Richard Watts titled "Victoria General Hospital cleanliness found wanting in audit". The Westech Independent Housekeeping Audit Report (.PDF, 14 pages) is here.

The Spalding report ends with a timeline that somehow misses the all important 'May 12 - BC's General Election' date.

If Kevin Kreuger was right ( and he was right) would that mean the new Minister of Education, Dr. Margaret MacDiarmid MD, as a cabinet minister and senior BC Liberal politician, must now make the solemn and sober choice to either resign from the BC Liberal cabinet and caucus, or resign from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of whose Hypocratic Oath she is now in direct contravention?